Black ink for the Epson WorkForce 40 inkjet costs $17 and a cartridge can print 230 pages, which works out to 7.4 cents per page--a penny more than the average for printers we've tested in this category.

Each color cartridge costs $12.34 and lasts for 310 pages, or 4 cents per color per page--also higher than average.

Ink costs for the HP Officejet 6000 Wireless inkjet printer are very reasonable, especially if you use the company's high-yield cartridges.

For instance, at the time of this writing, the printer's 1200-page high-yield black cartridge costs $32 (that's 2.7 cents per page), while each high-yield color cartridge costs $15 and lasts for 700 pages (2.1 cents per page). Even the standard cartridges' costs are below average.

Any printer designed to use tri-color cartridges is bound to impose higher printing costs than a printer that accommodates individual color cartridges, because you have to replace the cartridge as soon as one of the colors runs out. The Pixma MX330's color cartridge costs are slightly higher than average, but its black-ink cartridges are even worse:

At the time of our review, a standard-size black cartridge cost $16 and lasted for 220 pages, which comes to 7.3 cents per page. The high-yield cartridges cost $22 and lasted for 401 pages, bringing the cost per page down to a still-high 5.5 cents per page.

The prices per page for the Officejet 6500 Wireless's standard-size, black and individual-color ink cartridges are average. The corresponding figures for its high-yield cartridges are even better--just 2.7 cents per page for black text and 9.1 cents per page for four-color pages, at current prices.

At these capacities, you'll pay just 2 cents per plain-text page, and about 12 cents per page for four-color prints. The high-yield versions (all of them specced for 9000 pages) offer even greater savings: At this writing, a black toner cartridge costs $132 (1.5 cents per page), while each color cartridge costs $241 (2.7 cents per color), yielding a four-color page cost of less than 11 cents per page.

Toner for the Oki C3530n costs too much, regardless of color or size. At this writing, a standard-size black cartridge costs $54 and lasts through 1500 pages, for a rate of 3.6 cents per page; the high-yield black costs $77 and prints 2500 pages, for a rate of about 3.1 cents per page--not much of a savings.

The Ricoh Aficio SP C232SF ships with skimpy, 1000-page black and color toner cartridges; but its high-yield, 6500-page black replacement cartridge costs just $126 (1.9 cents per page), and the 6000-page color supplies cost $163 apiece (2.7 cents per color per page) at this writing. A page printed in all four colors would cost a dirt-cheap 10.1 cents.

Even the standard-size, 2500-page toner supplies are priced within reason: At this writing, black costs $83.50 (a hefty 3.3 cents per page), but each color costs $108.50 (a midrange 4.3 cents per color per page). At these prices, a four-color page would cost 16.4 cents.